I Would Not Give You False Hope
by Duck Life
Summary: Bree and Tasha relax in Greece as the reality of what happened on the space colony begins to set in.


Tasha finds her spread out on a towel down by the shore, soaking up as much Grecian sunlight as she can absorb. "Piña colada?"

"Ooh," Bree says, lowering her sunglasses to look up. "Which one's virgin?"

Tasha glances down at the drinks. "This one," she says, nodding to her left hand. "Which means _this_ one's for you." She gives Bree the drink in her right hand.

"For real?" Bree says, staring incredulously as Tasha sinks into a beach chair beside her. "Are you serious?"

"Totally," Tasha says, sipping her own non-alcoholic drink. "I can't drink." She stops talking abruptly; her pregnancy's still a secret and a surprise for the kids. "Because, ah, I have to drive somewhere later."

"Well, when in Rome," Bree says, sucking piña colada through a colorful straw. "Or Greece."

Tasha pulls her book out of her bag and slips her sunglasses on before glancing back at Bree. "Wait, alcohol isn't gonna do something funny to your bionics, is it?"

Bree shrugs. "Only one way to find out."

"I'll drink to that." They clink their drinks and lay back to enjoy the warm salt air and the soft sand. The tide rolls in and out, and Bree can't help but remember their first trip to the beach, crammed inside Davenport's portable lab trying to save the world while Tasha relaxed.

This is definitely an improvement.

As she listens to the waves, Bree tries to let go of the past few days, but despite the warmth of the sun and the sweetness of the rum in her glass, she can't stop running over scenarios in her head. The way her stomach had plummeted when Krane showed up. The panic of not knowing where Tasha was. The scared, lost feeling when Davenport got Triton App'd and there was nothing she could do.

Watching Adam's vital signs disappear as he floated in the void of space.

Bree shakes her head, suddenly cold despite the sunshine. Tasha notices. "You okay, Bree?"

"Yes," she says, too quickly. "No. I don't know."

"You don't have to drink it if you don't want to."

"It's not that," Bree says, but she does set her drink in the sand and twist her body to look up at her adoptive mom. "Just… are you okay? Did Krane… did Gao do anything to you?"

"No, honey, I'm fine," Tasha promises, loosely cupping her own hand around Bree's to reassure her. "Honestly, I hardly remember most of that disaster."

"Then they might've hurt you and you wouldn't even know!"

Making herself more serious, Tasha leans down so she can meet Bree's gaze. "I'm okay," she promises. "Your dad and your brothers are okay. _You're_ okay. Okay?"

Bree nods, but she doesn't look convinced. Tasha plays with her hair and watches the waves, breathing deep and trying to find a way to make her girl feel better.

After a few minutes of toying with her straw, Bree looks up again. "It's just," she says, "it's like it was with Leo, back when we started. Adam and Chase and I would go do something dangerous, and Leo would stay home and be okay. Like, when Krane captured us the first time? And we all got controlled and tried to hurt Leo, except Leo talked Chase down and it was all okay." She's talking rapidly, just like always. After four years, Tasha's learned to keep up. "Except now Leo's part of the team and he's bionic and that's new and different but it's okay, really, and I don't worry about him so much anymore. But he's not our one normal family member anymore, _you_ are."

"Oh," Tasha says, not really sure how to respond to that. Personally, she doesn't _think_ of herself as "normal." It takes a pretty abnormal mom to raise four extraordinary kids.

"And you were, like, our… liaison? Sort of? Between our crazy lives and a normal home and a normal life? Except now, suddenly, you're in danger and I just… Tasha, I didn't know what to do."

"Honey, honey, it's okay," Tasha assures her, and she slides out of her chair to sit on the sand beside Bree, whose hands keep fluttering as her voice warps and stutters, vocal manipulation beginning to run amok in her anxiousness. "I'm here. I'm right here. I've got you."

Tasha holds her and hugs her, and for a long moment Bree gets to stop being a superhero and a bionic human and a survivor. She gets to just be a girl on a beach in Greece, being comforted by a woman she was terrified of losing.

"I know Leo jokes a lot about how I don't want you and Adam and Chase in the house," Tasha says, still playing with her hair as they listen to the waves and the slight wind. "But I miss all of you so much every day." She leans back and smiles at Bree. "Mostly you."

"I miss you too!" Bree tells her. "All the students are looking to _me_ to teach them how to be people and _I_ don't even know! Side note, I may have taught everybody the completely wrong way to hit the quan."

"Yeah, that's not something I can help you with," Tasha says. "I can Macarena! You know the Macarena?" She starts doing it with her arms, still seated, and Bree laughs and laughs. "You're gonna be okay," Tasha promises. " _I_ am. We all are."

"I just get scared."

"I know," Tasha sighs. Bree's hair is soft like the sand and warm in the glow of the sun, and Bree's been in bulletproof steel bunkers before but she's never felt this safe, sitting here with the woman who became her mom despite all the fumbles and tumbles along the way. "You should believe me, though, you _are_ a good person. You know what you're doing, and you're doing it well. You're an excellent mentor, Bree." She smiles at her. "And I'm still here. I'll always be here for you to fall back on, or if you need advice, or if you want to go to Greece."

They sip their piña coladas and they sit there, safe, as the sunlight gets more and more orange.


End file.
